Cover Model Body Personal Training

My Journey in Indonesia up to November 25th

A non training or nutrition blog I wrote while sitting in traffic in Jakarta on my way to the airport to go to Bali…

My journey in Indonesia

It’s November 25th on a hectic night in Indonesia. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed traffic like this in my entire life!!!

I’m sitting in the back of a bluebird taxi on the way to Jakarta Airport. Think I’m coming down with a cold, must be the cold aircon mixed with the 30-40oC humidity! That won’t dampen my spirits though, I’ve Bali to look forward to after all. My second visit in two weeks. I have a somewhat weird conversation with the non English speaking taxi driver, just hope he knows where he’s bringing mr because I haven’t got a clue!!

Ok I’m here, with only an hour to my flight and shit, I’ve only 70,000 rupiahs in my wallet and the taxi fare is 138,000. I use charades to try explain I’m running to an ATM for money and I’ll be back in 5minutes!.. Just hope my luggage is still there when I get back! 🙂

The first definitely wasn’t a vacation, it felt more like a school bootcamp, being told what to do, how to do it, what to wear and how to wear it! Thing is I’m not used to being told what to do and how to do it. Guess it’s being my own boss all of 7-8 years!

I definitely enjoyed Mr International in most parts but not so much in others! The organisation of the event on Nutrifoods part was fantastic! They are a brilliant bunch of people who worked their asses off for the two weeks of the event and put on a great show for the final in Central Park, Jakarta! A huge well done from me guys! 😉

The Singapore organisation who owns the Mr International competition on the other hand I found to be a huge let down! For me and for most people who attended the final, shocked and horrified are the two words that spring to mind at who their choices were for the top 15 to the top 5 contestants and even down to the eventual winner.

I was and am delighted for the winner because he’s a friend of mine but I amongst a lot of other people just can’t understand how this competition was judged and what it was judged on!

I myself could never have won it, the main reason being that I was not willing to pack up and move to Singapore for a year to live with an organisation I dot believe in!.. No thanks!! That mixed with having to lose heaps of muscle, definitely a big NO for me! 😉

You know that saying greatness is created by the pillars of failure or one door closes and two doors open?.. Well I’m an optimist and believe in making your own luck! I know my purpose for coming to Indonesia was not to win that competition but for a completely different reason! A reason probably not at all obvious to anyone else but me.

I have made some fantastic contacts here in Indonesia and have made lifelong friends 🙂 for me that makes me a winner! 😉

So here I am now sitting on my Garuda Indonesia flight to Bali. I’ve made a pact with myself to do at four things there that I have never done before! First one is diving. The rest I’ll figure out along my way! 😉 I might even rent a scooter and drive the length and breath of the island!

Personal Trainer Dublin Darragh Hayes

Hi I’m Darragh Hayes.

I am a Professional Model, Company Director and Physique Transformation Specialist here in Dublin, Ireland. I have worked for Calvin Klein, D&G, Tom Ford, Lucozade, Diet Coke, U magazine, Fate Magazine, Men’s Fitness magazine, Louis Copeland but to name a few..

I currently work out of my personal training studio in Temple bar, Dublin City Centre. Click here -> Personal Training Studio Temple Bar to read more about it.

I have had a huge amount of success working with people one to one as a personal fitness trainer but the problem is I want to help everyone that will listen! This isn’t like other personal trainer websites. I intend to help as many people as possible that have questions about routines, nutrition and lifestyle management or anything regarding fitness training.

Personal Trainer Dublin - John Weldon Transformation

Dublin Personal Trainer - Louise Quinn Transformation

Please Comment on the posts! Ask questions and I will post/reply to them! This isn’t a company site or anything, just me! Ask, ask, ask!

I currently hold the title of Mr Universe Model 2011 which was held in the Dominican Republic last May and Mr International 2010 which was held in Indonesia.

I need to make it clear to everyone that I am an athlete and have never taken any banned or performance enhancing substances including Steroids or Subscription Diuretics. Everything I have achieved is through pure hard work, determination, willingness to learn and a broadened knowledge of the human body and nutrition. With regards to supplements, the most I take is a good Whey protein pre and post workouts, Multi Vits and Omega3 fish Oils. Supplements cannot make a bad diet a good one and cannot replace the nutritional value of good food.

My story so far..

From winning national and world titles to having the privilege to say I have worked with many of many of the most illustrious fashion and health&fitness magazines and fashion designers around. Many of my achievements so far have come through my desire, determination to succeed, willingness to learn and my love and passion for Sports, Health & Fitness.

Many people think that achieving the lean athletic/cover model look is unattainable. They think that people have to starve yourself and restrict fluids for days at a time. This just isn’t the case. I most certainly don’t

I’ve heard of people going to extremes with their exercise and diets, leaving themselves deprived and weak for photoshoots and I can’t understand why they put themselves through such hell. There is no need!!!

Personally my personal training programme looks more like that of an athlete. I train with intensity, lift heavy weights and eat clean, but I don’t take it to the extremes that you may have heard of. It means I train less, have more time to live and achieve better results!

The guys that take it to those extremes have it all wrong, they train 6 days per week or more and like bodybuilders ’bulking up in between shoots and then have to severely restrict calories in order to drop the body fat they have accumulated. It doesn’t make sense to me. I only train 3-4 days per week but it’s because of the athletic way I train that I only have to do it 3-4 times per week.

I was quite young when I started going to the gym purely because it was part of my training as a professional footballer. I was about 17 when I first started but I got hooked and of course I was training like everyone else, the wrong way. I was training like a bodybuilder, isolating body parts and therefore training 6-7 days per week. Thinking back now I laugh because it was nuts!!

I am lucky that I have really good genetics. I started to fill out and went from the “skinny” kid to the “You look different, bigger” guy. It felt good, people started noticing that I was putting on muscle but again it was training that made no sense looking back on it now.

God I used to spend hours in the gym neglecting life. I would put friends and family off for training. This was down to looking at and listening to the wrong people. I didn’t want to be the “bigger” guy anymore. I wanted to be “RIPPED”

This all fuelled my desire more and soon nobody had the answers to the questions I was asking. I wanted to have a greater understanding of how and why things happened the way they did. I was sick of reading crap in magazines and listening to the old school bullshit. I wanted to know more so I researched, I studied and I never stopped asking questions. It took time but I slowly built up a solid knowledge of nutrition and training the right way, the athletic/cover model way!

No longer did I train like a bodybuilder doing boring isolation exercises and spending 6-7 days a week in the gym. I changed my mindset and started training like an athlete, like a cover model, using explosive weighted and bodyweight movements

People then started asking me the intricate questions I was once asking, even people who helped me in the gym and who once answered my questions. This all led to me getting my qualifications and in my view I will never stop learning because my appetite is so strong for knowledge.

A few more years of putting my new found knowledge to use and I started getting modelling jobs I never thought possible. The likes of Calvin Klein, D&G, Lucozade, Diet Coke, top Asian supplement company L-Men and top men’s fitness magazines were booking me. These were the types of jobs I could only dream of and now they were actually happening.

Train athletically, eat clean and you can have a cheat meal every now and again. It’s not a problem. This is how I do it and it works. I look forward to my cheat day once a week and would still perform this ritual leading up to a photoshoot. I am in single digit body fat all year round because of training athletically and eating the way I do.

For instance I couldn’t train last year for three months because of an injury but I didn’t get fat or lose too much muscle because I kept my diet clean. It just makes sense! Eat clean and stay lean!

Again I can’t reiterate enough how much hard work this is and you have to be 100% committed to learning and achieving. It’s what has gotten me where I am today. It’s one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, committing fully to the lifestyle and sacrifices I have had to make to try succeed at my dream. It’s been really tough at times and I have enjoyed the journey so far, although I wouldn’t say I have yet achieved my dream, I most definitely haven’t. This is one of the main reasons that keeps me so motivated and driven.

I always encourage anyone with a dream to stop dreaming about it and to coin one of the best phrases around “Just Do It”. This is my mentality , make the necessary steps to put them into action, a thought is still a thought unless you do something about it. Make a plan and JUST DO IT!